A practical Performance Max audit checklist for Shopify stores. Check tracking, Merchant Centre, product feed issues, landing pages, brand traffic and wasted spend before increasing your Google Ads budget.
Performance Max Audit Checklist for Shopify Stores
If your Shopify store is running Performance Max and the results are unclear, this checklist will help you work out what needs fixing before you increase the budget.
Performance Max can work well for eCommerce, but it is not a set-and-forget campaign. It relies heavily on the quality of your conversion tracking, product feed, Merchant Centre setup, asset groups, landing pages, product selection and bidding strategy.
If those inputs are weak, Google can still spend your budget. It just may not spend it in a way that produces profitable sales.
This Performance Max audit checklist is designed for Shopify stores that are already running Google Ads and want to know whether their campaign setup is helping or hurting the business.
If your campaign is already spending but not bringing in enough sales, you may also find this useful: Why Is My Performance Max Campaign Not Converting?
Quick answer
A proper Performance Max audit should check whether Google is receiving clean conversion data, whether Merchant Centre and the Shopify product feed are healthy, whether the campaign is spending on the right products, whether brand traffic is inflating results, and whether the landing pages are strong enough to convert paid traffic.
Before increasing your Performance Max budget, check conversion tracking, purchase revenue values, product feed quality, Merchant Centre warnings, product-level spend, brand traffic, final URL expansion, asset group structure, landing page quality and overall Shopify sales performance.
Performance Max audit checklist
Here is the short version.
Check:
Conversion tracking
Primary conversion goals
Purchase revenue values
Enhanced conversions
Merchant Centre warnings
Product feed titles
GTINs and product identifiers
Disapproved or limited products
Products with spend but no sales
Brand traffic influence
Asset group structure
Ad copy and creative assets
Final URL expansion
Landing page quality
Pricing and shipping competitiveness
Budget and bidding strategy
Search campaign support
New customer performance
Search term insights
Recent account changes
Overall business results, not just Google Ads reports
Now let’s go through each one properly.
1. Check your primary conversion goals
Start with conversion goals.
Performance Max optimises toward the conversion actions you give it. If those conversion actions are wrong, the campaign will chase the wrong outcome.
For a Shopify store, the main primary conversion should usually be purchases with accurate revenue value. Not page views. Not add to cart. Not begin checkout. Not a random button click.
Softer actions can still be useful as secondary signals, but they should not usually be the main thing Performance Max is trying to maximise.
Check:
Are purchases set as the main primary conversion?
Are add to cart or page views incorrectly set as primary conversions?
Are old conversion actions still active?
Are duplicate conversions being counted?
Are imported GA4 conversions doubling up with Google Ads conversions?
Is Google optimising for real sales or soft engagement?
This matters because Performance Max does not know what a good sale is unless you define it properly.
If the campaign is optimising toward weak conversion actions, it can look active while still wasting money.
2. Check purchase tracking and revenue values
Tracking the purchase is not enough. The purchase value also needs to be accurate.
For Shopify stores, poor revenue tracking can make Google Ads performance look better or worse than it really is. If conversion value is wrong, your return on ad spend will be wrong. If your ROAS is wrong, your bidding decisions may also be wrong.
Check:
Are purchases tracking correctly?
Is each purchase counted once?
Are revenue values being passed into Google Ads?
Are tax, shipping and discounts handled consistently?
Does Google Ads revenue broadly line up with Shopify revenue?
Are refunds or cancelled orders being reviewed separately?
Has tracking changed after a Shopify theme, app or checkout update?
You do not need the numbers to match perfectly across every platform. But if Google Ads says one thing and Shopify says something completely different, do not ignore it.
Bad tracking creates bad optimisation.
3. Check Enhanced Conversions
Enhanced Conversions can help improve conversion measurement by using hashed first-party customer data in a privacy-safe way.
For Shopify stores, this is worth checking because checkout changes, browser privacy settings and consent settings can all affect tracking accuracy.
Check:
Is Enhanced Conversions turned on?
Has Google Ads verified it?
Are there any conversion diagnostics warnings?
Has Shopify checkout changed recently?
Has a tracking app or theme update affected the setup?
Are customer details being passed correctly where allowed?
This is not the first thing I would obsess over, but it belongs in the audit.
If your tracking foundation is weak, Performance Max has less reliable data to work with.
4. Check Merchant Centre warnings
For Shopify and eCommerce stores, Merchant Centre is not a side issue. It is central to Shopping and Performance Max performance.
If Merchant Centre has product warnings, disapprovals or feed problems, your campaign may be restricted before you even look inside Google Ads.
Check:
Are any products disapproved?
Are any products limited?
Are there account-level warnings?
Are shipping settings correct?
Are return settings correct?
Are prices matching Shopify?
Are sale prices syncing properly?
Are images compliant?
Are product identifiers missing?
Are there policy issues?
Are important products eligible to serve?
A campaign can only advertise eligible products. If important products are disapproved or limited, your campaign structure may look fine while the real problem sits inside Merchant Centre.
This is one of the biggest areas I check in any Shopify Google Ads review.
5. Check product feed titles
Weak product titles are one of the most common Shopify Google Shopping problems.
Your product title helps Google understand what the product is and when it should show. If your titles are vague, Google has less context.
Weak title:
Classic Hoodie
Better title:
Men’s Organic Cotton Pullover Hoodie Black
The better version includes product type, audience, material and colour. It gives Google and the shopper more useful information.
Check whether your product titles include useful attributes such as:
Product type
Brand
Gender or audience
Colour
Size
Material
Style
Model number
Key use case
Important search terms
Do not keyword-stuff product titles. But do not leave them vague either.
If your Shopify product titles are written only for people already browsing your site, they may not be strong enough for Google Shopping or Performance Max.
6. Check GTINs and product identifiers
GTINs, MPNs and brand data help Google understand and match products correctly.
For branded products, missing identifiers can hurt visibility and product matching. For custom, handmade or private-label products, there may not be a valid GTIN, but the feed still needs to be handled properly.
Check:
Do products have valid GTINs where available?
Is the brand field correct?
Are MPNs used where relevant?
Are custom products marked correctly?
Is identifier_exists being used properly?
Are imported products missing required data?
Are product identifiers consistent across variants?
This is especially important if you sell branded products, replacement parts, appliances, fashion, homewares, coffee machines, spare parts or anything where Google can match your product against existing commercial data.
7. Check disapproved or limited products
Do not just check the overall number of products in Merchant Centre. Look at which products are affected.
A few disapproved products may not matter. But if your best sellers, high-margin products or core categories are limited, that is a real problem.
Check:
Are your best-selling products eligible?
Are high-margin products eligible?
Are sale products eligible?
Are core category products eligible?
Are disapprovals affecting one supplier, brand or product type?
Are image or policy issues affecting products that should be driving revenue?
Are important variants missing or limited?
This is where many audits stay too shallow.
The question is not just “Are there disapprovals?”
The better question is:
Are the wrong products being blocked, limited or underfed?
8. Check products with spend but no sales
This is one of the most important checks in a Performance Max audit.
Performance Max can spend across many products, but not all products deserve budget.
Look for products that have:
High spend and no sales
Many clicks and no sales
Low ROAS
Poor conversion rate
Low margin
Low stock
Poor product pages
High return rates
Weak images or descriptions
Uncompetitive pricing
Expensive shipping
Slow delivery times
These products may need to be improved, excluded, grouped differently or given less budget.
This is especially important for Shopify stores with large catalogues. If every product is included, Performance Max may spend on items that were unlikely to sell profitably in the first place.
Your best products and your full product catalogue are not the same thing.
9. Check whether brand traffic is inflating results
Performance Max can pick up brand-related traffic. That means some conversions may come from people who already knew your business.
Brand traffic is not bad. But it can make Performance Max look stronger than it really is.
Check:
Did brand Search traffic drop after PMax launched?
Are PMax results strong but total revenue flat?
Are new customer numbers improving?
Are search term insights showing brand-heavy demand?
Is PMax taking credit for customers who were already looking for you?
Are brand exclusions needed?
Are brand campaigns and PMax overlapping too much?
The problem is not that brand traffic converts. The problem is when you mistake brand capture for new growth.
A Performance Max campaign that looks profitable inside Google Ads may still be adding less value than you think.
10. Check asset group structure
Asset groups should not be random buckets of products, headlines and images.
A good asset group should usually be built around a clear product category, theme, offer or customer intent.
Weak asset group structure:
One asset group for all products
Generic headlines
Generic images
No clear product theme
Landing pages not aligned
Audience signals too broad
Products with different margins mixed together
Sale and full-price products mixed without a plan
Better asset group structure:
Best sellers
High-margin products
Sale products
Specific product categories
Seasonal collections
New arrivals
Commercial or trade products
Premium products
Local service areas, if relevant
The goal is to make the products, copy, images, landing pages and audience signals work together.
If your asset groups are too broad, Google gets less useful direction.
11. Check your headlines and descriptions
Performance Max ads can appear across different Google placements, so your creative still matters.
Check whether your headlines and descriptions are specific enough.
Weak headline:
Shop Online Today
Better headline:
Shop Commercial Coffee Machines
Weak headline:
Quality Products at Great Prices
Better headline:
Fast Delivery on Espresso Machine Parts
Your ad copy should make it clear what you sell, who it is for and why someone should click.
Check:
Are headlines product-specific?
Do descriptions mention clear benefits?
Are shipping, warranty, stock or range advantages mentioned?
Is the copy too generic?
Does the copy match the asset group?
Are sale or seasonal messages current?
Are there enough strong assets for Google to test?
Do headlines sound like your business or generic ad filler?
Do not let Google build a campaign from vague copy and expect sharp performance.
12. Check images and video assets
Performance Max can use images and videos across YouTube, Display, Discover and other placements.
For Shopify stores, poor creative can hurt click quality and conversion intent.
Check:
Are images clear and professional?
Do they match the products in the asset group?
Are lifestyle images available?
Are product images strong enough?
Are logos uploaded correctly?
Is there a proper video asset?
Are auto-generated videos being used?
Do the visuals reflect the quality of the brand?
Are images current, or are they from an old campaign or sale?
You do not need expensive production. But the creative should not look like an afterthought.
If Google has weak assets, it may still spend. It just may not spend well.
13. Check final URL expansion
Final URL expansion allows Google to send people to pages it thinks are more relevant than the final URL you provided.
This can help, but it can also send paid traffic to weak pages.
Check whether PMax is sending traffic to:
Low-quality collection pages
Old blog posts
Outdated sale pages
Thin product pages
Policy pages
Pages with poor conversion rates
Pages that do not match the ad message
Pages you would never intentionally use as landing pages
If final URL expansion is on, review landing page performance carefully.
For some Shopify stores, URL exclusions are needed. For others, a tighter page feed strategy may be better.
Do not assume Google always picks the best page.
14. Check landing page quality
A campaign can only do so much. If the product page is weak, paid traffic will leak.
Check your product pages on mobile first.
Look for:
Clear product images
Useful product descriptions
Visible price
Clear shipping information
Delivery timeframes
Returns policy
Reviews
Trust signals
Stock status
Simple variant selection
Fast loading speed
Clear add-to-cart button
Payment options
Warranty or guarantee details
Reasons to buy from your store
For collection pages, check:
Useful filters
Clear product names
Strong images
Visible prices
Relevant sorting
No out-of-stock clutter
Good category copy
Clean mobile layout
Helpful internal links
If people are clicking but not buying, the product page may be the problem.
Performance Max might be exposing a conversion issue rather than causing one.
15. Check pricing and shipping competitiveness
This is the uncomfortable part, but it matters.
Sometimes the campaign is not broken. The offer is weak.
Compare your products against competitors.
Check:
Are your prices competitive?
Is shipping too expensive?
Is free shipping available above a threshold?
Are delivery times clear?
Do competitors have stronger reviews?
Do competitors offer better bundles?
Do competitors explain the product better?
Do competitors show better images?
Do competitors have easier returns?
Do competitors offer better payment options?
Performance Max will not save an offer that shoppers do not want.
If your product is more expensive, slower to deliver and less trusted, you need a clear reason why someone should still buy from you.
16. Check budget and bidding strategy
Budget and bidding strategy matter, but they should not be the first thing you change.
Before adjusting bids or budgets, check tracking, Merchant Centre, feed quality, product performance and landing pages.
Then review:
Is the daily budget high enough to collect data?
Is the campaign limited by budget?
Is the target ROAS too aggressive?
Is the campaign stuck with too little conversion volume?
Has the bid strategy changed too often?
Has the campaign had enough time to learn?
Is budget being split across too many campaigns?
Are low-priority products draining budget?
A common mistake is building too many Performance Max campaigns with too little budget in each one.
Control is good. Starving the campaign of data is not.
17. Check whether Search campaigns are supporting PMax
Performance Max should not automatically replace Search campaigns.
Search campaigns are still useful when you need tighter control over high-intent keywords.
You may still need Search campaigns for:
Brand terms
High-intent category searches
Specific product searches
Competitor terms
Local service queries
Urgent purchase intent
Lead generation terms
High-margin product categories
For many Shopify stores, the best account structure is not just Performance Max. It is Performance Max supported by Search, Shopping feed optimisation, remarketing, clean conversion tracking and strong landing pages.
If you are relying only on PMax, you may have less control than you think.
18. Check new customer performance
A campaign can look good if it keeps converting people who already know your store.
That does not always mean it is growing the business.
Check:
Are new customers increasing?
Is total Shopify revenue increasing?
Is paid revenue replacing organic or direct revenue?
Are returning customers making up most conversions?
Are first-time customer acquisition costs acceptable?
Is the campaign helping growth or just taking credit?
Is overall profit improving, or just ad platform revenue?
This matters because Google Ads reports do not always tell the full business story.
Look at Google Ads, Shopify and overall business revenue together.
19. Check search term insights
Performance Max does not give the same level of search term control as standard Search campaigns, but search term insights can still be useful.
Look for:
Brand-heavy searches
Irrelevant themes
Products being matched to poor intent
Weak category themes
Competitor-related searches
Informational searches
Search patterns that should become Search campaigns
Queries that reveal poor feed matching
If you see useful search themes, you may be able to build stronger Search campaigns around them.
If you see poor themes, the issue may be your feed, product titles, landing pages or asset group structure.
20. Check what changed before performance dropped
Before rebuilding anything, look at the timeline.
Ask:
Did performance drop after a budget increase?
Did the bid strategy change?
Did the target ROAS change?
Did Shopify theme or checkout change?
Did a feed app change?
Did Merchant Centre start showing warnings?
Did a sale start or end?
Did stock availability change?
Did competitors change pricing?
Did tracking break after an app update?
Did new products get added to the campaign?
Did landing pages change?
Performance issues often have a trigger.
Find it before making random changes.
What to fix first
If your Performance Max campaign is underperforming, do not try to fix everything at once.
Start with the highest-impact areas.
Fix this first:
Conversion tracking
Primary conversion goals
Merchant Centre errors
Product feed issues
Products spending with no sales
Landing pages receiving paid traffic
Brand traffic confusion
Campaign structure
Bidding and budget
That order matters.
There is no point adjusting bidding if tracking is wrong.
There is no point increasing budget if poor products are draining spend.
There is no point improving creative if Merchant Centre is limiting your best products.
There is no point blaming PMax if the product pages are weak.
When should you rebuild a Performance Max campaign?
You may need a rebuild if:
The campaign is optimising for the wrong goals
Tracking has been broken for a long time
The structure is messy
Asset groups are too broad
Too many unrelated products are mixed together
Poor products are draining budget
Brand traffic is hiding weak performance
Merchant Centre issues have not been fixed
The campaign has been changed too many times without a clear plan
A rebuild should not just mean duplicating the campaign and hoping for the best.
A proper rebuild should include clean tracking, better product structure, improved feed data, stronger asset groups, clearer budget control and better landing page alignment.
When should you leave the campaign alone?
Sometimes the right move is not to touch the campaign too much.
You may leave it alone if:
Tracking is accurate
Merchant Centre is clean
The campaign has enough recent conversion data
ROAS is improving
Product-level performance looks healthy
There have been recent major changes
The learning period is still active
Seasonality explains the short-term drop
Do not make changes just because you are impatient.
But do not hide behind “learning mode” if the setup is clearly poor.
Performance Max audit summary
A useful Performance Max audit should answer these questions:
Is Google optimising toward the right conversion goal?
Is purchase and revenue tracking accurate?
Is Merchant Centre healthy?
Are product titles and identifiers strong enough?
Are important products disapproved or limited?
Which products are spending without sales?
Is brand traffic making results look better than they are?
Are asset groups structured clearly?
Are ads and assets specific enough?
Is final URL expansion sending traffic to the wrong pages?
Are landing pages strong enough to convert?
Is pricing and shipping competitive?
Is the bidding strategy realistic?
Are Search campaigns supporting PMax properly?
Is the campaign creating growth or just taking credit?
If you cannot answer those questions, you do not really know whether your Performance Max campaign is working.
The blunt version
If your Shopify Performance Max campaign is spending money but results are weak, the campaign is usually not the only issue.
The problem is often a mix of:
Bad tracking
Weak product feed
Merchant Centre issues
Wrong products getting budget
Brand traffic inflating results
Broad asset groups
Poor landing pages
Weak product pages
Uncompetitive pricing
Too much trust in automation
Performance Max works best when the inputs are clean and the business offer is strong.
If the inputs are messy, automation just helps you waste money faster.
Need a second opinion on your Performance Max setup?
If your Shopify store is spending money on Performance Max and you are not sure what is working, I can review the account and show you what I would fix first.
I look at:
Conversion tracking
Performance Max structure
Merchant Centre issues
Product feed quality
Shopping performance
Products wasting spend
Brand vs non-brand traffic
Landing page issues
Budget allocation
Search campaign support
Request a Free Google Ads Waste Check and I’ll show you where your budget may be leaking.
FAQs
What is a Performance Max audit?
A Performance Max audit is a structured review of a PMax campaign to check whether it is set up to generate profitable results. It should look at conversion tracking, campaign goals, Merchant Centre, product feed quality, asset groups, products with wasted spend, brand traffic, landing pages, budget and bidding strategy.
What should I check first in a Performance Max campaign?
Check conversion tracking first. If Google Ads is optimising toward the wrong conversion action, the rest of the campaign data becomes unreliable. For Shopify stores, make sure purchases and revenue values are tracking correctly before changing budgets or bidding.
How do I know if Performance Max is wasting money?
Performance Max may be wasting money if products are getting spend but no sales, ROAS is poor, brand traffic is inflating results, Merchant Centre has unresolved issues, or the campaign is sending traffic to weak landing pages. You should also compare Google Ads results with actual Shopify sales.
Should I audit Merchant Centre when reviewing Performance Max?
Yes. For Shopify and eCommerce stores, Merchant Centre is a major part of Performance Max performance. Product disapprovals, missing identifiers, weak titles, price mismatches, shipping issues and poor feed data can all hurt Shopping and PMax results.
Should I include all products in Performance Max?
Not always. Including every product can work for some stores, but it can also waste budget on products with poor margins, weak product pages, low stock or poor conversion rates. A good audit should identify products that spend but do not sell.
How often should I audit a Performance Max campaign?
A light review should happen regularly, especially for search terms, product performance, Merchant Centre warnings and budget allocation. A deeper audit is useful after major changes, performance drops, seasonal shifts, feed changes, tracking issues or before increasing the budget.
Is Performance Max better than standard Shopping?
Performance Max can access more Google inventory than standard Shopping, but that does not automatically make it better. Standard Shopping gives more control in some cases. Many Shopify stores use Performance Max, but the campaign still needs clean tracking, strong feed data and proper product-level review.
Can a Shopify product feed hurt Performance Max performance?
Yes. Weak product titles, missing GTINs, poor descriptions, incorrect availability, price mismatches and shipping errors can all hurt Performance Max. Your product feed helps Google understand what you sell and when to show your products.
Should I change my Performance Max campaign if it is in learning mode?
Be careful. If the setup is fundamentally sound, avoid making constant changes during the learning period. But if conversion tracking is wrong, Merchant Centre has major issues or the campaign is optimising for the wrong goals, those problems should be fixed.
Can landing pages cause Performance Max to perform badly?
Yes. Performance Max can bring traffic, but it cannot fix a weak product page. Poor images, thin descriptions, unclear shipping, no reviews, slow mobile pages and weak trust signals can all reduce conversion rate.
Why does Performance Max spend on products that do not sell?
Performance Max may spend on products that do not sell because the feed lacks useful data, the product is included in a broad asset group, the product receives clicks but has a weak landing page, or Google does not yet have enough clean conversion data to prioritise better products.
Should I increase my Performance Max budget if results are poor?
Not straight away. Increasing budget usually makes sense only after tracking, Merchant Centre, product feed, landing pages and product-level performance have been checked. More budget will not fix a poor setup.
Not sure where your Performance Max budget is going?
I can review your Google Ads account, Merchant Centre setup and Shopify product feed, then show you what I would fix first.
Request a Free Google Ads Waste Check
I offer a free Google Ads audit for Shopify and eCommerce businesses. I’ll review your Performance Max setup, Merchant Centre account, product feed and conversion tracking, then show you where budget may be leaking.
Book your free Google Ads audit today. Contact Phil Adair at Yes Online Marketing – Sydney’s Google Ads specialist with 17+ years experience. Call 0410 445 717 or visit yesonlinemarketing.com
There’s no cost and no obligation — just an honest assessment of what’s working, what isn’t, and how to fix it fast.